
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
BY 

HOWARD 
CHANDLER 
HRISTY 



32 




Class ^K±-Ud.^ 

Book XS_ 



Copyright l^°_ 



1Q_1 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



2 






'^W0 J^OWSlsf 




^iJiwflilOf/^WIjrCiiriifcV /»*'» 



O budding time! 

O love's blest prime! 





my 



Cfeoz^e QDLiotD 



^V^ltk q) lludttatlond in (EoLot 



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cjijowazd (oliandiez (olitidty 




KON-IN 
FEKIOR. 

A^Eoy 



cJTooffat, Ijaid and Gompany 



Copyright, 1909, by 

MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK 

Published. October, 1909 



\ 



The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



248930 



Co 
NATALIE 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



So vast looms George Eliot's fame as a 
novelist that it will surprise most readers 
of this exquisite Poem of Life and Love 
to find her its author. The surprise is 
natural and justified. "As if a strong, 
delightful water that we only knew as a 
river," writes Matthew Browne in the 
Contemporary Review, " appeared in the 
character of a fountain; as if one whom 
we had wondered at as a good walker or 
inexhaustible pedestrian began to dance; 
as if Mr. Bright, in the middle of a public 
meeting, were to oblige the company with 
a song, — no, no, not like that exactly, 
but like something quite new, — is the 
appearance of George Eliot in the charac- 
ter of a poet." 

That she herself appreciated this is 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



shown abundantly in her correspondence. 
In one of her innumerable letters to Mrs. 
Bray she wrote, referring to her poetry : — 
" I expect a good deal of disgust to be felt 
toward me in many quarters in doing what 
was not looked for from me." 

But it was a feeling far different from 
disgust that this beautiful poem inspired 
on its appearance in 1866. It was written 
in the early prime of her life and her 
career. She had produced "Adam Bede," 
"The Mill on the Floss," "Silas Marner," 
"Romola" and "Felix Holt," and had yet 
to write "Middlemarch" and "Deronda." 
She was forty-seven years old and had 
well tasted of the great success of which 
she was soon to drink so deeply. She had 
attained some fame and financial inde- 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



pendence. She was glorying in the posses- 
sion of one of the profoundest loves in 
literature. At this time, this pause, as it 
were, before her entry into her greater 
celebrity, she wrote the few poems she 
has left us. Of these, "Two Lovers" 
makes the surest appeal to the universal 
human heart. 

The year 1866 was one of great spiritual 
stress with George Eliot. Its early months 
were occupied with the completion of 
"Felix Holt," which she finished on 
May 31st "in a fever of excitement after 
days and nights of trembling and palpita- 
tion," only to fall into a complete reaction 
from which she did not strongly recover 
until the year neared its close. Mr. 
Lewes's health meantime was precarious. 




INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



and they were compelled to seek change 
on the Continent. "As soon as one has 
found the key of Hfe," she wrote Madame 
Bodichon, "'it opes the gates of death.' 
Youth has not learned the art of living 
and we go on bungling till our experience 
can only serve us for a very brief space." 

It was during this year that she wrote 
the poem that Mr. Christy has here illus- 
trated so beautifully and appreciatively. ' 

Even to those that know George Eliot 
as a poet the "Two Lovers" is not famil- 
iar; and the publishers, therefore, beheve 
that the author's many readers will wel- 
come this new and attractive presentation 
of the charming poem. 



m 



10 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



O buddincr time! ^^^'^^ 

O _ _ PAGE 

O love's blest prime ! . Frontispiece 

"Mingled the dark and sunny hair, 
And heard the wooing thrushes sing" i6 

"Two wedded from the portal stept: 
The bells made happy caroUings" 20 

"Two faces o'er a cradle bent: 
Two hands above the head were 
locked" 24 

"Two parents by the evening fire: 
The red light fell about their knees" 28 

"But all the heads by slow degrees 
Had gone and left that lonely pair" 32 

"They drew their chairs up side by 
side, 
Their pale cheeks joined and said 
'once more!'" 3^ 



S^,^* 



II 



"^wo Mdvsgi<^ 



TWO LOVERS 



Two lovers by a moss-grown 
spring: 
They leaned soft cheeks to- 
gether there, 
Mingled the dark and sunny 
hair, 
And heard the wooing thrushes 
sing. 

O budding time! 

O love's blest prime! 



15 



" Mingled the dark and sunny hair, 
And heard the wooing thrushes sing.' 




.i/CWfnC^Wt^^V; !<je| 



TWO LOVERS 



Two wedded from the portal 
stept : 
The bells made happy 

carollings, 
The air was soft as fanning 
wings, 
White petals on the pathway 
slept. 

O pure-eyed bride! 
O tender pride! 



19 



"Two wedded from the portal stept: 
The bells made happy caroUings." 



TWO LOVERS 



Two faces o'er a cradle 
bent : 
Two hands above the head 

were locked; 
These pressed each other 
while they rocked, 
Those watched a life that love 
had sent. 

O solemn hour! 
O hidden power! 



23 



"Two faces o'er a cradle bent: 
Two hands above the head were locked." 



TWO LOVERS 



Two parents by the evening 
fire : 
The red light fell about 

their knees 
On heads that rose by slow 
degrees 
Like buds upon the lily 
spire. 

O patient life! 
O tender strife! 



27 



"Two parents by the evening fire: 
The red light fell about their knees." 



TWO LOVERS 



The two still sat together 
there, 
The red light shone about 

their knees; 
But all the heads by slow 
degrees 
Had gone and left that lonely 
pair. 

O voyage fast! 
O vanished past! 



3^ 



"But all the heads by slow degrees 
Had gone and left that lonely pair." 



TWO LOVERS 



The red light shone upon the 
floor 
And made the space be- 
tween them wide; 
They drew their chairs up 
side by side, 
Their pale cheeks joined, and 
said, "Once more!" 

O memories! 
O past that is! 



jii 



35 



"They drew their chairs up side by side, 
Their pale cheeks joined, and said <once more!'" 



O memories! 
O past that is! 






TWO 
LOV E RS 






GEORGE 
ELIOT 



n^^vj* 








WITH COLOR 
USTRATIONS 




